Speaker 1: In the early nineteen sixties, grape workers in California earned
Speaker 1: less than a dollar an hour, with no brakes, no
Speaker 1: access to toilets or cold drinking water, and miserable living conditions.
Speaker 1: For years, the growers had pitted Filipino and Mexican American
Speaker 1: workers against one another to prevent collective action. All that
Speaker 1: changed in September nine, when the unions representing both the
Speaker 1: Filipino and Mexican Americans joined together to organize a strike
Speaker 1: and a boycott at great personal costs and even in
Speaker 1: the face of violent reprisals. The workers held firm for
Speaker 1: five long years, but their struggle paid off. In nineteen seventy,
Speaker 1: California's grape growers signed their very first union contracts, giving
Speaker 1: workers higher wages, benefits including healthcare, and stronger protections. So
Speaker 1: why am I telling you this Because for all of
Speaker 1: our division and conflict today, we had to remember that
Speaker 1: progress has never come easily. It requires hard work, persistence,
Speaker 1: and most of all, organizing. Today I have the honor
Speaker 1: of speaking with someone who was not only one of
Speaker 1: the key organizers of the grape strike and boycott, but
Speaker 1: has been in the front lines of nearly every progressive
Speaker 1: social movement since together was as our Chavs. In nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty two, the lawyers where to form the National farm
Speaker 1: Workers Association, which later merged for the Agricultural Workers Organizing
Speaker 1: Committee to become the United farm Workers, America's most enduring
Speaker 1: agricultural union. She's a trailblazer who embodies the passion and
Speaker 1: persistence required to create lasting change. As a direct result
Speaker 1: of her leadership in the American labor movement, countless people
Speaker 1: have been able to better support themselves and their families
Speaker 1: and have been treated with the respect and dignity they deserve. Today,
Speaker 1: Dolores is and not showing any sign of slowing down.
Speaker 1: She's president of the Dolores square To Foundation, a grassroots
Speaker 1: organization that engages and develops leaders working at the intersection
Speaker 1: of women's rights, immigrant rights, labor rights, voting rights, and
Speaker 1: civil rights at the local level where people's lives can
Speaker 1: be changed for the better. Dolores, You're a national treasurer.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for being here today. Thank you for
Speaker 1: inviting me. Let's start from the beginning. For our listeners
Speaker 1: who don't know as much about you as I do.
Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about how you grew up
Speaker 1: and what made you decide to become an organizer. Well,
Speaker 1: I actually I was very fortunate that I grew up
Speaker 1: in Stockton, California. I was born in New Mexico, and uh,
Speaker 1: my family was very always involved in politics. As you know,
Speaker 1: people in New Mexico have been there for many generations,
Speaker 1: and I remember as a young girl hearing the stories
Speaker 1: about who's running for this office, who was running for
Speaker 1: that office. My parents divorced and my mother boughts to California.
Speaker 1: My father, who was stayed in New Mexico. But he
Speaker 1: was always very He was a union organizer, a volunteer
Speaker 1: organizer for the for the United mind Workers Union, and
Speaker 1: then he ran for the State Assembly in New Mexico
Speaker 1: and one but he wasn't there very long because he
Speaker 1: was expelled because the UH punched out one of the
Speaker 1: other one of the other UH president of the Legislature,
Speaker 1: Senator Montoya, who so he was expelled because Montoya, the
Speaker 1: Montoya founding, was a big They were big cotton growers
Speaker 1: and they were very anti union. And my dad, to
Speaker 1: his dying day, was always very very strong union supporter.
Speaker 1: Everywhere my dad went, he organized the union. You know.
Speaker 1: After World War Two, when he he had been in
Speaker 1: the Navy and he came to California and he was
Speaker 1: working at an army base and he organized Actually they're
Speaker 1: they're more confederation to government epolice. So I sort of
Speaker 1: got that sense from my father, and I wish everybody
Speaker 1: could have had my childhood because it's Stockton, been, California.
Speaker 1: It's between San Francisco and Sacramento. H very a very
Speaker 1: diverse community. So many of the people there worked again
Speaker 1: in the in the fields and the farms. So we
Speaker 1: had people there from the Philippines, from Japan, from China,
Speaker 1: from Mexico, the Okys, Uh, we had black families there.
Speaker 1: My neighbors were all these people here. My next door
Speaker 1: neighbors were immigrants from Italy. Kitty corner they were from Greece,
Speaker 1: and my next door neighbors was the Smith family. They
Speaker 1: were black. And I say this because a lot of
Speaker 1: people didn't have that opportunity to grow up with people
Speaker 1: so many different ethnic groups. I like to say I
Speaker 1: got my ethnic studies from my friends, and I was
Speaker 1: just really blessed by that because I think that really
Speaker 1: prepared me for the world. And so uh, I was
Speaker 1: very very fortunate not to have grown up in a
Speaker 1: situation where racism was not an issue because you know,
Speaker 1: we were all of different backgrounds and colors and we
Speaker 1: all loved each other. Why do you think it's so
Speaker 1: hard in some places for people to feel that level
Speaker 1: of comfort with each other across racial and ethnic lins Now, well,
Speaker 1: agave because I don't. I believe that they interact with
Speaker 1: different people from different backgrounds, and so when people don't
Speaker 1: know each other, then they fear each other. And I
Speaker 1: think that's really hurt our country. And when we have
Speaker 1: a lot of segregation and and then people don't really
Speaker 1: understand each other's cultures, they're not realizing that when we
Speaker 1: do meet other people from different cultures, it really enriches us,
Speaker 1: you know, it makes our our We have a broader
Speaker 1: vision of who people are. You know, there's actually a
Speaker 1: lot of academic research that shows that diverse groups make
Speaker 1: better decisions than homogeneous groups, and better than loan geniuses.
Speaker 1: It's fine to be part of a tribe, but it
Speaker 1: has to be an inclusive tribalism to work. Anyway. I
Speaker 1: was fascinated by your saying that when I speak at schools,
Speaker 1: they often tell the students that we have one human race,
Speaker 1: that we have a lot of culture, cultures and nationalities,
Speaker 1: but we only have one human race that is Homo sapiens,
Speaker 1: and that we are all related. And when they say
Speaker 1: that this has happened to me a couple of times.
Speaker 1: At one time, all of these children, they were like
Speaker 1: like for a second and third grader, sitting on the floor,
Speaker 1: and I said to them, where all cousins were all related.
Speaker 1: They all stood up and started running towards each other
Speaker 1: and hugging each other. I want to ask you just
Speaker 1: one more question about your early years, because it strikes
Speaker 1: me that one of the problems we've got in America
Speaker 1: today is that the average human attention spanned has gotten
Speaker 1: shorter and shorter and shorter. As we've gotten access to
Speaker 1: more information, we take less time to process it and
Speaker 1: put it together. So the thing I wanted to ask
Speaker 1: you is your first great hit. I guess as an
Speaker 1: organizer was a pivotal role you played in a grape
Speaker 1: strike and boycott and that went on for five years
Speaker 1: and you were a young woman years old. How did
Speaker 1: you stick it out for five years? Was it hard?
Speaker 1: Was it easy? Did you have to think about it?
Speaker 1: Because most people think about going to a march or
Speaker 1: several marches. How did you do it well? Even though
Speaker 1: it takes that patience, but it was interesting and if
Speaker 1: you asked that question, because sometimes I felt that the
Speaker 1: farm workers and we're going to give up, but they didn't.
Speaker 1: You know, we started with the strike in de Lano,
Speaker 1: and then we couldn't win the strike because they were
Speaker 1: bringing strike breakers because we're so close in California, we're
Speaker 1: so close to Mexico that they could bring in strike
Speaker 1: breakers and they would bring them in from the Philippines
Speaker 1: and other places. And so we went out on the
Speaker 1: boycott because this attorney stru wind stru Wineberg from San Francisco,
Speaker 1: he said, why don't you try a boycott because they
Speaker 1: had done the great boy the bus boycott there in
Speaker 1: the South. And so uh, some of our young volunteers
Speaker 1: were now on the hitch hike to New York and
Speaker 1: I did the first boycott against a wine company, uh Shenley,
Speaker 1: that was also a whiskey company, and we got that
Speaker 1: first contract. So then we did this all great boycott.
Speaker 1: So I was would go to New York and start
Speaker 1: the great boycott there with Mr Fred Ross Senior, the
Speaker 1: man who taught us how to organize. So then when
Speaker 1: I would come back to de Lano, we're you know,
Speaker 1: we're the heart of the great strike. Was that, and
Speaker 1: I would feel like really guilty because we hadn't one yet.
Speaker 1: And when I would say to the workers, I tried
Speaker 1: to apologize to them and said, oh, don't worry, don't
Speaker 1: worry wortha We're gonna win. We're gonna win. We're gonna
Speaker 1: stay here on strike as long as it takes for
Speaker 1: us to win. So so then then that really bolstered
Speaker 1: me up, and it maybe gave me a lot a
Speaker 1: lot of inspiration because they were willing to be out
Speaker 1: there on the picket line, you know, from morning until
Speaker 1: until from don from down to too when the sun
Speaker 1: went down. Then that I thought I can be out
Speaker 1: there in the city asking people of boycott grapes. So
Speaker 1: you know, we knew that we were going to win eventually.
Speaker 1: And and sus that always had a great statement that
Speaker 1: I know that's part of your mantra. Also he said,
Speaker 1: the only time that you that you lose us when
Speaker 1: you quit. As long as you don't give up, we're
Speaker 1: going to win. So all of us felt we that
Speaker 1: that strength. You know, of course with Caesar's leadership and
Speaker 1: then so many people supporting us that we were go
Speaker 1: to win eventually, and of course we did. We'll be
Speaker 1: right back. I wanted to skip around a little bit.
Speaker 1: In your rich long life, you moved beyond the union
Speaker 1: organizers to try to mobilize people to vote and increase
Speaker 1: their empowerment through citizenship. And the more you did it,
Speaker 1: the more you had to rely on basically persuasion. And
Speaker 1: it occurs to me that a lot of people find
Speaker 1: that difficult. They find it difficult to talk to people,
Speaker 1: to find that difficult to say what's in their mind
Speaker 1: and heart? What do you say to people like that?
Speaker 1: They are young people all over the world today who
Speaker 1: really want to be heard and want to make a difference.
Speaker 1: What advice do you give young people who are trying
Speaker 1: to find their own voice and use it. You know,
Speaker 1: before Season and I started the Union, we came out
Speaker 1: of another organization called the Community Service Organization that again, uh,
Speaker 1: I think you knew Congressman Edroid Ball very well, who
Speaker 1: was the first Latino elected to the City Council Los
Speaker 1: Angeles and then became the first congressman. Well, he came
Speaker 1: out of that organization and when once we got a
Speaker 1: group together, the first action that we took was to
Speaker 1: go out and go register voters door to door. That's
Speaker 1: the first thing that we did. So and see us
Speaker 1: so that the Community Service Organization we dedicated ourselves to
Speaker 1: do voter registration, you know, and even though it was
Speaker 1: a nonprofit organization, we were very effective in getting out
Speaker 1: the vote to get good people elected, and we were
Speaker 1: able to pass major, major legislation, uh Like in California,
Speaker 1: we passed the law that if you were if you're
Speaker 1: a citizen, you could register somebody else to vote. You
Speaker 1: wouldn't have to find a deputy register somewhere like they
Speaker 1: do in Texas still to this day. Then you could,
Speaker 1: you know. So we we were able to register many,
Speaker 1: many thousands and thousands of people to vote. So we
Speaker 1: carried that tradition also into the United farm Workers. You know,
Speaker 1: we put putting a lot of time and registering people
Speaker 1: to vote. And then of course in the United Farmworkers
Speaker 1: we also endorsed candidates. And I like, I like, and
Speaker 1: to like say, I tell him, it's like a football game,
Speaker 1: you know, and you have one team that chose up
Speaker 1: and the other team doesn't show up. The team that
Speaker 1: chose up is gonna win. So we've got to get
Speaker 1: out there and get our team elected. And we don't
Speaker 1: look at people. We can't pass the legislation that we want.
Speaker 1: And I say that the young people, you can march
Speaker 1: and you can protest as much as you want. And
Speaker 1: that's the kind of good that we do that because
Speaker 1: it brings attention to the issues. But if it's not
Speaker 1: put into a law, then it can't be impl ment,
Speaker 1: it can't be enforced. People cannot be held accountable. Otherwise
Speaker 1: we can march and talk and nothing's going to happen.
Speaker 1: It will stay the same. So, you know, we just
Speaker 1: have to work really really hard, and we can't have
Speaker 1: a democracy people don't vote. I mean, that's a foundation
Speaker 1: of our democracy, is it for people to be able
Speaker 1: to vote and to elect the people that we need.
Speaker 1: And we also know that right now our democracy is threatened.
Speaker 1: We saw what happened on January the six, you know,
Speaker 1: and we see what's happening now in some of the
Speaker 1: southern states for their passing laws to oppressed the vote
Speaker 1: and especially to keep people like myself, people of color,
Speaker 1: from voting. So we've got to work really really hard
Speaker 1: to make sure that we keep our democracy. Often one
Speaker 1: nice week is as to students like and say to people,
Speaker 1: you know, to google the map of the United States
Speaker 1: before eighteen forty eight and what you will see is
Speaker 1: that one third of the United States was Mexico. And
Speaker 1: so when they say to us, Mexican Americans and you know,
Speaker 1: to go back where we came from, we say, oh, no,
Speaker 1: we were here before the United States was the United
Speaker 1: States of America and the North American continent, the South
Speaker 1: American continent. These are the indigenous people the continent. You know,
Speaker 1: this land was there and is there. So they they
Speaker 1: they are not the immigrants, so to speak. The two
Speaker 1: immigrants that came to the United States came from Europe,
Speaker 1: like my great grandmother on my grandpa's side and uh
Speaker 1: my great grandfather on my mother's side, who came from England.
Speaker 1: You know. So I think we have to just that's
Speaker 1: important with that we you know, really promote ethnic studies.
Speaker 1: And I know there's people are that want to take
Speaker 1: out any of the books to talk about slavery and
Speaker 1: talk about the real history of the United States of America.
Speaker 1: But this is important, and this is this is education.
Speaker 1: And if I think if every person in the United
Speaker 1: States had this education about the two history of the
Speaker 1: United States, that that way we could erase a lot
Speaker 1: of the racism that exists and take away again those
Speaker 1: those arms that they have, those weapons of hatred that
Speaker 1: they use to divide people. But it's something that that
Speaker 1: can happen because you know, uh. Franklin Delano Roosevelt said
Speaker 1: that that the education was the soul of our country.
Speaker 1: And during World War World War two, when I try
Speaker 1: to take money out of the education in the libraries budgets,
Speaker 1: he said, no, we will not take one dime out
Speaker 1: of our libraries or one dime out of education, because
Speaker 1: education is the soul of our country. And I think
Speaker 1: we have to put a lot more money into education
Speaker 1: because we know and even in California, when I was
Speaker 1: a kid going to school California, and we were like, uh,
Speaker 1: I think one or two in terms of the money
Speaker 1: that was appropriated for each student, and I think now
Speaker 1: we're like number thirty six or something. And many of
Speaker 1: the states are in the kind of the same position
Speaker 1: and where we do not have enough money going into
Speaker 1: our schools for our teachers and our students. And that
Speaker 1: I think that's one of the things that we really
Speaker 1: have to prioritize and we're going to erase all of
Speaker 1: this this hatred that exists right now in our country
Speaker 1: because when people are educated, then you know, and what
Speaker 1: and when I say educated, I mean having the type
Speaker 1: of education that that I'm talking about, the importance of
Speaker 1: labor unions, the importance of voting, you know, the importance
Speaker 1: of women having gender studies and and kind of start
Speaker 1: educating our children to get rid of all of that misogyny, sexism,
Speaker 1: homophobia that exists. But I think we can do it,
Speaker 1: but we have to make it like a priority, because
Speaker 1: I think I hate hate comes from ignorance, and then
Speaker 1: we know that that hatred manifests itself and in people
Speaker 1: killing other people just because their Mexicans, or their Jews,
Speaker 1: or their Blacks or their Asians. So I think we
Speaker 1: could actually we this is we could look at this
Speaker 1: like a war against ignorance. A war against ignorance. That's
Speaker 1: a great phrase. Let me ask you a more personal question.
Speaker 1: When you had been doing this work for more than
Speaker 1: half your life, you were fifty eight years old, you
Speaker 1: were in a peaceful protest in San Francisco when an
Speaker 1: officer hit you with a nightstick and broke four of
Speaker 1: your ribs and shattered your spleen. Did you think about
Speaker 1: giving up then? Were you terrified? What did you think
Speaker 1: was gonna happen? Well, it set me back for a while,
Speaker 1: but I have to say this though, it never changed
Speaker 1: my mind in terms of my commitment to non violence.
Speaker 1: You know that we could still win, that we don't
Speaker 1: have to use violence to be able to be able
Speaker 1: to achieve our goals. And uh, that was that was
Speaker 1: And I guess when you go out there and you
Speaker 1: start doing activists work, then people are going to attack you.
Speaker 1: And I know that you your Selfnesser President has been
Speaker 1: the victim of many many verbal attacks, of political attacks
Speaker 1: and in my case, and that was a physical attack
Speaker 1: and uh at a peaceful protest, But it didn't really determine,
Speaker 1: uh in terms of knowing that we have to continue
Speaker 1: working to achieve the kind of social and economic justice
Speaker 1: that we need in our country. What did you think
Speaker 1: about Judge Kanji Brown Jackson being confirmed to the Spring Court?
Speaker 1: Now there are four women on the Spring Court. Why
Speaker 1: is that important? And how do you think it will
Speaker 1: affect young girls growing up? Well, I think it's wonderful
Speaker 1: that we have a black woman on the U Supreme Court.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that is so incredible. I think it
Speaker 1: is a moment of joy for all of us. And
Speaker 1: in terms of how it affects young women, I know,
Speaker 1: it's it's just gonna be so inspiring for young women
Speaker 1: when they see that a woman can can achieve the
Speaker 1: highest position, you might say, next to the presidency, but
Speaker 1: to be on the U. S Supreme Court, I mean,
Speaker 1: that is amazing. And you know, Coretta Scott King said
Speaker 1: that we will never have peace in the world until
Speaker 1: women take power. Oh and by the way, Mr President,
Speaker 1: we have the first Latina on the California State Supreme Court. No,
Speaker 1: her name is Patti said it at all. And she
Speaker 1: comes from an immigrant family in the Imperial Valley of California,
Speaker 1: So that that is also something that we're very proud of.
Speaker 1: More after this, let me ask you something else, though.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I think is impressive to
Speaker 1: me is the work that you were doing through your
Speaker 1: own foundation to help communities build local organizations to advanced
Speaker 1: social justice. I think one of the week missus of
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party, and after you know, the initial civil
Speaker 1: rights actions, was that we spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: on national politics, but we didn't spend enough time building
Speaker 1: organizations and communities that can both build change and then
Speaker 1: change people's attitudes about who they elect from the grassroots.
Speaker 1: So tell us just a little bit about what you're
Speaker 1: doing with the foundation, and while you're doing it well,
Speaker 1: going back to that same organizing model that we used
Speaker 1: in the CSO and in the United farm Workers, just
Speaker 1: meeting with people in their homes, convincing them that they
Speaker 1: have power that that again getting them to commit to
Speaker 1: understand that nothing will change unless they get involved. And
Speaker 1: it's just amazing that once people become active and they
Speaker 1: go to school board meetings and city councils meetings and
Speaker 1: and they see the changes that network is making. That
Speaker 1: could give us some wonderful examples. We had one woman
Speaker 1: who came out of our organizing group and uh, she
Speaker 1: and her husband and the people are their friends. They
Speaker 1: went door to door to and the past petitions and
Speaker 1: they got a bond issue passed to build a brand
Speaker 1: new state of the art gymnasium for their middle school
Speaker 1: because there are pollution down here in current county. In Bakersville,
Speaker 1: Kevin mccarthey's district, by the way, it's so bad that
Speaker 1: the kids could not even go out and play a
Speaker 1: recess because the weather, the weather is so polluted. And
Speaker 1: then she decided that they got there, They got the
Speaker 1: state of the art gymnasium built. She decided to run
Speaker 1: for the school board, and the principal wanted to get
Speaker 1: rid of the breakfast program for the farmer good children.
Speaker 1: So they got rid of the principle and kept the
Speaker 1: breakfast program. And I mean, just as an example, and
Speaker 1: so many of them have done these improvements like getting
Speaker 1: neighborhood parks, swimming pools, street lights, uh, gutters and and
Speaker 1: the sidewalks and connection to sewers, you know. And but
Speaker 1: the thing is that they do all of the work themselves,
Speaker 1: which is the amazing thing. And then, uh, we had
Speaker 1: another group. We did a big project on education in
Speaker 1: our local high school here in Bakersfield. They had expelled
Speaker 1: twenty students of color in one year, and uh, well
Speaker 1: we changed that. We sued them and from tihundred expulsions
Speaker 1: it is now down to one. But in addition to that,
Speaker 1: they had to start changing their policies there to have
Speaker 1: positive behavior intervention systems, you know, they have to have
Speaker 1: hispanic heritage amount. They have to have a Black History
Speaker 1: Month to end the racism and in that area. So
Speaker 1: we our education uh program, we're active in about seventeen
Speaker 1: different school districts, coming over two hundred schools and over
Speaker 1: the recommendations that and this is the parents and the
Speaker 1: students that are doing this work, they have been accepted.
Speaker 1: So you know, we we just did a lot of
Speaker 1: work out on the census and on redistrant team and
Speaker 1: all of the maps that our demographers presented were accepted
Speaker 1: by the Independent Commission here in California for the Central Valley.
Speaker 1: So we're making a lot of progress. And now we're
Speaker 1: building a cultural piece and justice cultural center. Uh. You
Speaker 1: know that we want to start this organizing academy. So
Speaker 1: this organizing model that we have, we can export it
Speaker 1: to other areas because because once people learned that they
Speaker 1: have the power to make changes, it's exhilarating. They are
Speaker 1: so proud that they know that they were able to
Speaker 1: do this work. So it's it's it's it's it's almost miraculous.
Speaker 1: But you know, Mr President, I call it democracy an action,
Speaker 1: which is exactly what it is. And we say to people,
Speaker 1: you have the power. You may not have a high
Speaker 1: school diploma or we're gone to college. You may not
Speaker 1: speak perfect English or no English. But the thing is
Speaker 1: that your power is in your person. And once you
Speaker 1: all get together and you take collective action, and you said,
Speaker 1: as you said earlier, this is the way that we
Speaker 1: make think that make changes and make things happen. And
Speaker 1: of course now we're doing a big registration drive and
Speaker 1: getting ready for the JUNI elections. I want to remind
Speaker 1: everybody that's listening to me that Dolores were too recently
Speaker 1: celebrated her ninety's second birthday and she sounds like she's
Speaker 1: maybe about forty, just getting ready to put her toe in.
Speaker 1: How did you celebrate your birthday? Well, I had a
Speaker 1: kind of a quiet celebration with my family and my grandchildren,
Speaker 1: and one of my granddaughters is a dancer, and they
Speaker 1: brought the indigenous dancers and I got the blessings. I'm
Speaker 1: sure you've had those many times, and that was a
Speaker 1: wonderful way to just spend my birthday. We will be
Speaker 1: having a more public events because we're raising money for
Speaker 1: peace and this cultural center. We've raised about eighteen million.
Speaker 1: We've got to raise about another maybe another seven to
Speaker 1: ten million dollars. But that's gonna be a great center
Speaker 1: there because we're gonna have a child care center, youth
Speaker 1: development center, the organizing academy, a credit union and auditorium
Speaker 1: and many rooms for training people and and having a
Speaker 1: place where everybody can come and have their meetings there,
Speaker 1: you know. And we want to make it a great
Speaker 1: center there for kind of again to promote the all
Speaker 1: of the democratic activities that we're that we're doing. I
Speaker 1: would say that's to everybody who's listening to us. What
Speaker 1: do you agree with everything the Laura said or not?
Speaker 1: Wouldn't you like to be ninety two and still living
Speaker 1: in the present and for the future. And I think
Speaker 1: that that's what we should all aspire to do. I
Speaker 1: want you to have a chance to close here. What
Speaker 1: do you think the secret to your ability to relentlessly
Speaker 1: focus on the future and deal with disappointments and deal
Speaker 1: with political setbacks and never be satisfied unless you personally
Speaker 1: are trying to do something to my life better for
Speaker 1: somebody else. What's the sting? Where did that come from?
Speaker 1: And how can you spread it around? Well? I I
Speaker 1: can look back and you know I was born during
Speaker 1: the depression, and lived through World War Two, and I
Speaker 1: can look back and see how many changes have been
Speaker 1: made for the better. When I went to college, there
Speaker 1: was only a handful of US Latinos in the college system,
Speaker 1: you know, not very many women. And we can see
Speaker 1: how that has changed. And we can see all of
Speaker 1: the improvements that have been made over the years. And
Speaker 1: we know we still have uh, we still have a
Speaker 1: ways to go to create that perfect union that the
Speaker 1: founders of our government you know, wanted for us so
Speaker 1: and we know that we can we can achieve it.
Speaker 1: That it's a people power, it's a people engagement that
Speaker 1: makes it happen. And to me, I can see that
Speaker 1: they talk about the democracy as a dream and that
Speaker 1: the United States was was an experiment when our founders
Speaker 1: taught that they could make this happen. And well, by
Speaker 1: the way, we know they got this from the Iroquois, right,
Speaker 1: you know, the whole idea of our government. But if
Speaker 1: we couldn't achieve it, we just have to, you know,
Speaker 1: just get more people to understand that, more people to
Speaker 1: commit to it. And I think some times when you're
Speaker 1: an organizer, it's like you go around with like magic
Speaker 1: dust and you you know, are able to put that
Speaker 1: magic dust on people and say, look, we can do this.
Speaker 1: You can do it together. We can make this that
Speaker 1: we can achieve the dream of democracy. But we just
Speaker 1: all have to work together. And to me that it's
Speaker 1: just it's like finding the polit of goal at the
Speaker 1: end of the rainbow. It's there, but we just have
Speaker 1: to get there together to make it happen. And so
Speaker 1: that's what keeps me going because I do believe in
Speaker 1: their dream of democracy and knowing that we ordinary people
Speaker 1: that we can achieve it. We've got to say how
Speaker 1: much money people might have on the other side, we
Speaker 1: always have to remember that we the people that there
Speaker 1: are more of us, and as long as we work
Speaker 1: in a united and non violent way, that we can
Speaker 1: achieve that that dream so that people can be can
Speaker 1: have a sustainable income income you know, they can be
Speaker 1: safe and uh and healthy. We can make it happen.
Speaker 1: So that's what keeps me going, and I want to
Speaker 1: keep going as long as I possibly can to reach
Speaker 1: other people, especially those in Texas. Well. You stay self
Speaker 1: and healthy because you make me feel ten years younger
Speaker 1: every time I talk to you. Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: We love you, Thank you so much. Why am I
Speaker 1: telling you. This is a production of our Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: the Clinton Foundation and at Will Medium. Our executive producers
Speaker 1: are Craig Menascian and Will Malnati. Our production team includes
Speaker 1: Jamison Katsufa, Tom Galton, Sara Horowitz, and Jake Young, with
Speaker 1: production support from Liz Raferee and Josh Fornham. Original music
Speaker 1: by Wat White. Special thanks to John Sides, John Davidson,
Speaker 1: on hell Orina, Corey Gansley, Kevin thurm Oscar Flores, and
Speaker 1: all our dedicated staff and partners at the Clinton Foundation. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Stephanie Street, Executive director of the Clinton Foundation, where
Speaker 1: we work every single day to advance President Clinton's commitment
Speaker 1: to public service and improve lives across the country and
Speaker 1: around the world. President Clinton often reminds us that we're
Speaker 1: all in this together, that we rise or fall together.
Speaker 1: That's why in the face of crisis, we enter the
Speaker 1: call we act. At the Clinton Presidential Center, We've been
Speaker 1: proud to work together with partners to serve hundreds of
Speaker 1: thousands of meals to those struggling, to put food on
Speaker 1: the table, to get books, early learning and education sational
Speaker 1: resources into the hands of parents, families, and educators who
Speaker 1: are navigating the realities of remote learning and need it most,
Speaker 1: and the Center continues to serve as an educational and
Speaker 1: cultural institution focused on cultivating the next generation of leaders
Speaker 1: to make our future brighter than ever. Learn more about
Speaker 1: this work and see how you can get involved visit
Speaker 1: www dot Clinton Foundation dot org. Slash podcast